Eastman Kodak Company announced on June 22, 2009 that it will discontinue sales of KODACHROME Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. Sales of KODACHROME, which became the world's first commercially successful color film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to other films or digital capture. Today, KODACHROME represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak's total sales of still-picture films.

Despite all its outstanding features, KODACHROME involves a highly complex development process that led photographers to experiment with and adopt newer KODAK films that deliver outstanding color images through a simpler workflow.

Although KODACHROME has very distinct characteristics and no film will give the exact same results, current users are encouraged to try other Kodak films. Kodak continues to bring innovative new film products to market, having released seven new professional films -- over the last three years alone."

Alas, Kodak discontinued Kodachrome 25 - the true mark of excellence - seven years ago. Now they just closed the coffin.

Except for K-25, I've always preferred Ektachrome for its neutral color rendering. I found it more natural. Kodachrome 64 in particular was kinda "punchy". Ektachrome 100 was perfect to me. Those days are gone, too. Some magic is gone with it, as well, but we got such phenomenal post-processing power on the desktop these days in return, that I will trade in the magic.